August 01, 2011

Siemens to supply eight 500 MW coal gasifiers to China

The SFG-500 gasifier developed by Siemens Fuel Gasification Technology in Freiberg.

Siemens Energy has received an order from China to deliver eight coal gasifiers. The units, with a thermal rating of 500 megawatts each, are for a coal gasification plant in Yili City in Xinjiang province. The plant converts locally mined subbituminous coal into synthetic natural gas (SNG) with the aim of reducing imports of natural gas for power and heat generation. In its first stage of completion, the plant is to produce around two billion cubic meters of synthetic natural gas per year. The customer is the power provider CPI Xinjiang Energy Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of China Power Investment Corporation, one of the five biggest power generators in China. The coal gasification plant is scheduled to go on line by the end of 2014.

This will be a substantial increase to coal gasification (turning coal into synthetic gas). Coal gasification is better than pulverized coal burning, but it is more environmentally harmful than nuclear power. All forms of coal power are far worse than nuclear power, hydroelectric power, wind power. Fossil fuels and biomass are the leading pollution sources for energy generation.

"Five Siemens 500-MW gasifiers are already in operation in China, and we appreciate Siemens as a competent and reliable partner for projects of this scale," says Wang Haimin, General Manager of the CPI Yinan SNG Project, CPI Xinjiang Energy Co. Ltd. "We look forward to co-operating with Siemens and jointly realizing the successful operation of the project."

With a length of 18 meters, an inside diameter of 3 meters and weighing more than 200 tons, Siemens coal gasifiers are among the biggest and most powerful currently in large-scale industrial applications anywhere in the world. They can process up to 2,000 tons of coal per day. In this project, locally mined subbituminous coal is used to generate a synthesis gas which is then cleaned, de-sulfurized and converted into natural gas in a downstream methanization stage. This synthetic natural gas meets the stringent requirements of the pipeline operators, enabling it to be readily transported via existing natural gas lines. ​